Date: Sat, 6 Jul 1996 11:26:54 -0400
From: DOUGKIMMEL@aol.com
Subject: Fwd: The Courtcase News Update July 3,1996
Here is the latest news of the Tokyo Gay/Lesbian discrimination court case.
Note they would appreciate letters from the international community. I am
personally familiar with this case and the organization and think this
summary is an excellent statement.
Doug Kimmel
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Forwarded message:
From: occur@kt.rim.or.jp (Japan Association for the Lesbian & Gay Movement)
Date: 96-07-04 23:27:29 EDT
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The Courtcase News Update July 3, 1996
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Japan Association for the Lesbian and Gay Movement(OCCUR)
#201 4-43-4 Honcho Nakano-ku, Tokyo 164 Japan
Phone: +81-3-3383-5556
Fax: +81-3-3229-7880
E-mail: occur@kt.rim.or.jp
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"We won't stay there if there are homosexuals around!"
The City of Tokyo Passes Judgment on Homosexuality
The twelfth hearing in the second round of the "Fuchu Seinen no Ie"
Courtcase, Japan's first gay rights litigation, took place on May 16 at
Tokyo's High Court. The case was originally brought by the Japan
Association for the Lesbian and Gay Movement (OCCUR) in 1991 after the
Tokyo Board of Education ruled that homosexuals would no longer be allowed
to use the City's youth hostels. This ruling followed in the wake of an
incident in 1990 when OCCUR stayed overnight in a hostel in a Tokyo suburb
called Fuchu. After OCCUR members came out to the other groups they were
harassed throughout the night. The City cited the "disorder" that resulted
from their presence in the hostel to justify refusing them, or any other
out homosexuals, further access to the facilities. In the court case that
ensued the City has argued that homosexuals can be excluded on the basis of
an extrapolation from the so-called "separate sexes, separate rooms rule."
This argument allows them to deny their own homophobia by claiming that the
problem is not homosexuality as such but the fact that homosexuals are
attracted to members of the same sex. Thus allowing homosexuals to stay in
the facility at all would be tantamount to allowing males and females to
stay in the same room.
But at the May hearing the City of Tokyo submitted a further piece of
evidence to support its policy barring homosexuals from city-run youth
hostels. In this piece of evidence the latent homophobia in the City's
policies is clearly expressed.
The new piece of evidence was submitted to the court several days before
the hearing. It was a court brief written by Shigeo Ono, Director of the
Japanese National Council of Youth Organizations. In the brief Ono began by
stating that he had "not conducted any specialized research on the topic of
homosexuality." But nonetheless he went on to argue that "It would be very
difficult for mainstream youth groups to use a facility that was also being
used by homosexuals." He backed up this assertion by claiming that having
homosexuals around would introduce a sexual tension into the atmosphere and
distract the other youth from carrying out the activities for which the
facility is designed. He also argued that parents would be concerned about
the possibility of "disorder" if homosexuals were allowed to use the same
bathing facilities as other youth groups.
Tokyo's strategy in submitting this brief seems to have been to suggest
that parents and youth group leaders suffer from an vague anxiety about
homosexuality and that even if that anxiety has no basis in fact it is
sufficient to justify the exclusion of homosexuals from the City's youth
hostels. OCCUR spent several days formulating a response to this latest
piece of evidence and submitted a written argument at the May hearing.
On July 4, testimony was heard from an OCCUR witness in the largest
courtroom at the High Court. More than one hundred people were in
attendance as Akitoshi Yanagihashi, OCCUR member and one of the official
plaintiffs in the case, testified that OCCUR had used many other public
youth hostels in other prefectures since the 1990 incident with no mishaps.
He also gave a moving account of the impact of Tokyo's homophobic policies
on himself and the other members of the Japanese gay community. The
testimony lasted just over an hour. Tokyo's attorneys will cross examine
Yanagihashi at the next hearing scheduled for early September.
Throughout this court case OCCUR has benefited from the generous support of
the international gay community. Letters of protest to the City of Tokyo
are an extremely effective means of influencing the court's decision. OCCUR
would be very grateful for further letters from ILGA members or related
organizations stressing the following points.
1. It is extremely regrettable that the City of Tokyo continues to refuse
homosexuals access to its Metropolitan Houses for Youth (Seinen no ie)
despite the District Court's 1994 ruling that such discrimination is
unlawful. (The City has appealed this ruling).
2. Tokyo's policy is in clear opposition to the world-wide trend of
recognizing the human rights of homosexuals. The City of Tokyo has claimed
that it is merely applying the "separate sexes, separate rooms rule" to
homosexuals. But this application results in the de-facto barring of
homosexuals from the facility all together. As such, this is clearly an
instance of anti-gay discrimination.
3. The City argues that other youth and their parents will be "anxious" if
homosexuals are allowed to stay in the same facility, but this anxiety has
no basis in fact. If such anxiety does in fact exist it is the
responsibility of the authorities not simply to exclude homosexuals but to
take steps to educate the other guests and their parents by providing
accurate, unbiased information about homosexuality. The problem is not the
presence of the homosexuals it is the homophobia of the other guests.
4. The City of Tokyo must withdraw its appeal immediately and abandon its
discriminatory policies toward homosexuals. Only in this way can it begin
to function as an administration that takes the rights of all its citizens
seriously, including those of homosexuals.
5. (This point should be made in letters to the City of Tokyo) Restoring
the rights of homosexuals to use these public facilities would be an
important means of realizing Tokyo Prefectural Governor AOSHIMA Yukio's
stated commitment to "Government for the People" (Shimin'ha). For the City
government it would be an important step towards regaining the confidence
of the citizens of Tokyo.
Send letters to:
Mr. AOSHIMA Yukio
Governor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Tokyo Metropolitan Government
Nishi-shinjuku 2-8-1, Shinjuku-ku Tokyo 160 JAPAN
Mr. ISHIKAWA Tadao
The Chairman of the Tokyo Board of Education Tokyo Metropolitan Government
Nishi-shinjuku 2-8-1, Shinjuku Tokyo 160 Japan
Please send copies of all letters, as well as comments or inquiries to:
Japan Association for the Lesbian and Gay Movement (OCCUR) #201, 4-43-4,
Honcho, Nakano-ku
Tokyo 164 JAPAN
FAX: 81-3-3-3229-7880
email: occur@kt.rim.or.jp
Thank you very much.